Man appeals 30-year sentence

Claims attorney was 'ineffective'

A man serving a 30-year prison sentence for having sex with a 16-year old said Friday the outcome of his trial may have been different if his attorney had let him testify.

R.J. Larizza, now the State Attorney for the 7th Judicial Circuit, said he didn't want Afeez Ali to testify at his July 2006 trial because he was concerned his client might lie.

Ali had "consistently" told Larizza "in specific detail" that his brother, Aleem Ali, had sex with the victim after the three left the Roxy Night Club in Jacksonville Beach, the attorney testified.

"Then ... on the eve of trial ... he said he didn't, and that's what he would testify to," Larizza told attorney William Mallory Kent of Jacksonville.

"I was very candid with him ... whether this would put me in a position (of) suborning perjury," Larizza added.

Afeez Ali, now 27, was convicted on two counts of sexual battery, a first-degree felony, and battery, a first-degree misdemeanor.

Aleem Ali, now 35, had been convicted at his trial two days earlier of one count of sexual activity with a child (multiple perpetrators). St. Johns Circuit Judge J. Michael Traynor sentenced him to life in prison.

The Friday hearing before Circuit Judge Wendy W. Berger was an appeal of Afeez Ali's conviction and sentence due to "ineffective assistance of counsel."

Before trial, the prosecution had offered Afeez Ali a deal which called for a maximum of 15 years in prison in exchange for an admission of guilt. Larizza would have been allowed to argue for a sentence as low as 10 years.

Ali, 22 at the time of the incident, said he had not forced the girl to have sex.

His brother denied the charge, saying the victim made it up.

Afeez Ali had been visiting from Maryland and was staying at his brother's home in Orange Park. The two originally came from Trinidad.

Larizza said Friday that his client wanted to bolster his consent claim by saying the long-time family friend had been "coming on to him" for years and that they had oral sex when she was 8 years old.

"My impression was that would have been a big mistake," said Larizza.

Ali denied Friday that he ever said that to his attorney.

He continued in that vein by denying all of the essential parts of Larizza's testimony.

"I told him at our first meeting that I'd had sex (with the victim), but it had been consensual," he testified. "I told him then (my brother) never had nothing to do with it."

He said the three had stopped at a combination gas station and convenience store. He and the victim stayed in the car as Aleem Ali went inside, he said.

They began having sex almost immediately, said Afeez Ali, adding that his brother was furious when he returned to the car "five or 10 minutes" later and saw what was going on.

The Alis were arrested within hours of the incident and questioned at the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office.

Afeez Ali said he told investigators that he had consensual sex with the 16-year-old but that his brother was not involved.

He testified the officer said he could go home if he made his statement "consistent" with the victim's version.

That "consistency" required him to implicate his brother.

He also said he believed he would be going home because, "I knew I hadn't raped nobody."

The Alis were in jail for more than 550 days awaiting trial.

Afeez Ali claimed Friday that he did not testify because Larizza threatened to drop the case if his client insisted on it.

Traynor had already said there would be no more continuances. Afeez Ali said he was worried that, if Larizza dropped out, a public defender would have stepped in and taken over in mid-trial.

Larizza said repeatedly that he advised his client against testifying, but he never threatened to quit if his advice wasn't followed.

"I don't believe I ever said to Afeez that I would withdraw if he insisted on testifying," the attorney said.

Berger agreed to give the defense some extra time to get an affidavit from another potential witness before ruling on the defense motion.